It is known to mechanically and/or electrically couple contact surfaces with a spring to mechanically force the contact surfaces together in order to make intimate electrical, thermal, and/or mechanical contact with one another. It is also known to couple electrical contact surfaces by placing an electrical contact/spring device such as a star washer between electrical contacts in order to create a plurality of electrical connection between opposed contact surfaces. Without the electrical contact spring, the contours and surface finishes of the electrical contact surfaces must be controlled to prevent instances of single point contact that may cause unacceptably high electrical contact resistance, especially in high current applications. Providing adequate force to assure a stable, low thermal and/or electrical contact resistance may be by way of clamping or fastening each thermal and/or electrical contact.
Many electrical assemblies have multiple electrical/thermal connections either within the assembly or for making electrical connections with other electrical assemblies via a wiring harness, or for making thermal contact with a heat sink. It is preferable to make these connections using a single group wise connection, i.e.—without having to rely on distinct fasteners or clamps for each individual electrical/thermal contact. Also, it is desirable to have a spring that provides a contact force that is relatively constant over a distance corresponding to the tolerance stack of the assembly. In particular, when a spring is used to assure good thermal contact with an integrated circuit die, too high a spring force may damage the die, and too low a spring force may result in inadequate thermal coupling. Similarly for electrical contacts, the total force necessary to assure that each electrical contact experiences a minimum force may require undesirable reinforcement of the structure generating the total force if the spring force varies greatly with distance. If a connector assembly having multiple high current connectors is used, the insertion force may be undesirably high and so require purchasing costly tools and/or insertion aids.